There is also a recently-issued soprano by Weril, a Brazilian maker (distributed by DEG), but I can’t really comment on this horn as yet.Īltos are, of course, much more common, and there are several modern makers. Bach and Conn manufactured slide trumpets decades ago–if you can latch on to one of these old instruments, it will probably be serviceable. The German maker Mirafone still manufactures a “high end” soprano as well. The American makers LA Horn and Jupiter also manufacture slide trumpets which are fairly cheap, but you pretty much get what you pay for: these are instruments cobbled together with components from various drum corps and marching band horns. They can certainly be made to work, though, if you have a trumpet player with a good ear and a lot of patience. Kanstul in California still makes a full family of SATB trombones, plus contrabass, and they are very fine quality and sound. It can be a significant challenge to ask a trumpeter to take on the soprano trombone/slide trumpet.Īlso, finding a “good” soprano instrument is tough. What is a slight tuning adjustment on a tenor, say 1/4 inch of movement on the slide, becomes almost a half step on the soprano! ( this clarification added by Erik Salzwedel) Sopranos, pitched in B-flat, are essentially identical to slide trumpets.Īny tuning adjustments that are an advantage with the normal tenor/bass trombone may be problematic and multiplied several times by the smallness of the soprano. The “authentic” Moravian Posaunenchor is a full trombone “consort” comprised of Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass (SATB) trombones. The backbone of traditional Moravian instrumental music is a huge body of four-part chorales: many of them shared with other, younger Protestant denominations (especially the Lutherans and Methodists), but a large number of the traditional chorales are uniquely Moravian in origin and usage. Though trombone-only groups are relatively rare these days, nearly every congregation has an instrumental ensemble of some kind, even if it is a mixed band that meets once a year to play for the Easter sunrise service. This story is probably apocryphal…but as a trombonist, I’ll have to admit that I like it. The Posaunenchor, as the loudest sound available, played a chorale to sound the alarm the Indians, hearing the “voice of God” were so shocked that they retreated without harming anyone. There is a well-known story of an isolated settlement on the Ohio frontier that was about to be attacked by a band of Indians. The Posaunenchor would also announce deaths in the community (see below) and generally serve as the settlement’s “public address” system. It is still a widely-popular tradition in Protestant churches in Germany, though these days Posaunenchor generally indicates a church brass band, rather than an all-trombone group: I recently heard a performance by a 25-member German Posaunenchor that only had one Posaune in the group! In 18th-century Moravian settlements, the trombone choir, playing from the church tower or from in front of the entrance, served to call the congregation to worship, and served as the congregation’s “portable” ensemble for accompanying outdoor services: burial services and the Easter sunrise service traditionally held in the graveyard adjacent to the church. What is the traditional role of the Trombone Choir in Moravian worship?īeginning in the early 18th century, Moravian settlements in America used the trombone choir (German: Posaunenchor) as a distinctive part of worship, though it is a practice that had its roots in centuries of Church tradition in Germany and Silesia. Jeff Reynolds arrangement played by Moravian College Trombone Choir Moravian Trombone Choir Music: Frequently-Asked Questions
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